A goal is to ensure there are memorials for all known burials in the "country" cemeteries in the Bates/Cass/Henry counties where my ancestors lived and are interred, and am photo indexing as many as I can - some are in woeful condition. Too many are now in cow pastures, vandalized or stones used in barn foundations. May those with so little respect for our ancestors be haunted by their ghosts.

Corrections, updates and link requests are welcomed so "our" memorials are informative and accurate -- please send maiden names if you know them. Every person has a story - hopefully memorial managers who prefer not to update or correct their memorials will transfer them to the requesting family member/friend to maintain and add the story -- or there will be a software update that allows third parties to contribute to memorials. Thanks to all the administrators who make the site available and user-friendly, and to the many great volunteers who make "finding Grandma" possible. Special thanks to photo volunteers who spend hours searching for lost grave markers, sometimes in overgrown, tick and snake infested, unkept, unmarked cemeteries.

You are welcome to use information or grave marker photos I have entered. If you do a copy/paste of a memorial with a bio, please credit Find-a-Grave and the contributor;-- a LOT of time and research has gone into many of these memorials. Please do not copy/post my "people" photographs.

Please make your edit/transfer requests from the "edit" link of the memorial and not from the profile page which I don't view often. I generally don't transfer memorials with researched bios, nor do I transfer to requesters who are rude/demanding, have no profile, have two or more times memorials managed as entered, (some contributors claim an astonishing number of "grandparents") or who are collectors -- but I'll always update and link memorials within a day or two if not traveling. While I don't acknowledge edits, I do appreciate receiving them and thank you for taking the time to improve the memorial.

In his profile, contributor Jeff G #47276975, expressed my own feelings about our responsibility to this Site and the memorials we manage, and he has kindly given me permission to share his comments, below:

"We don't "own" the memorials we manage - they are not ours. We may create them, we may update them, we may transfer them to others - we are but stewards. They are Find A Grave memorials of human beings, departed.

They are not "friends" on a social media network website to be collected like baseball trading cards. And there's no prize for the one who dies with the most.

The reward comes from maintaining the most accurate and dignified memorials we can. What we record becomes history, and a record in my or someone else's family tree. We have a responsibility to do a good job of it. It's a privilege and honor." ***

There are so many orphan memorials on the site, names entered and forgotten. Please, if you enter a memorial, have the common courtesy to add edits submitted by people who care.

Note - accidents and nerve damage to left arm and hand, combined with worsening of my Essential Tremor, preclude my ability to hold a camera, has resulted in numerous typos; please call them to my attention (If adding info from census records, I use spelling as shown - those aren't typos.) Since I can no longer hold a camera, I've had to give up my passion to photograph lost cemeteries. Am using that time to enhance and link memorials.

Happy graving - and remember to thank our Veterans and Active Service men and women.

RE: Sarah Parker Whitmore Taylor, Forbes Cem.Thank you so much for letting me know about the error in my flower message on Sarah Taylor's memorial. I corrected it identifying her as granddaughter of Lawson Parker and Susan Sipes.

RE: Charles Sizemorethank you for your message however I am not familiar with any Ford directly being related to mylate grandfather. I can tell you however that my grandfather is buried at the Clinton cemetery in Clinton Missouri however he does not have a tombstone marking his place of burial he was in the military but he was dishonorably discharged shortly after the Korean War.

Mildred StonekingMildred Swanson Stoneking was my great-grandmother's sister. She had 4 siblings. Mildred was born in Moline 22 Oct 1897. The family history states that she was buried in an unmarked grave near her parents at Riverside. Probably because her parents died young and the children were "farmed out" to live with other people. There would have been no money for a headstone.Her parents' names were Mathilda Wilhemina Peterson Swanson and Lars Peter Swanson. They were from Sweden and came to the US after they were married. Their children were all born in Moline.If you would like further information, I'd be happy to share. I'm just back from Moline and am getting ready to put the headstone photos on Riverside @ Find a Grave, because they are not yet posted by anyone. I see you are also doing Cass County. I have relatives from there, as well and Bond. Trying ever so slowly to find all the burial sites!Dawn Clark

Your comments"They are not "friends" on a social media network website to be collected like baseball trading cards. And there's no prize for the one who dies with the most."

I love this.... I have run into a few 'body collectors' as I call them here on Find A Grave, and I just don't understand it. I have requested family members be transferred to me on occasion and one gal just ripped me up one side and down the other for asking, and her reason? Because I had not been a member for very long and had not contributed much. Wow.

Thank you for the great comments, I really appreciate your attitude about this site.

RE: ALEXANDER AND LEAH WELLSThe headstones of Alexander and Leah are stored inside at Meadowcroft Village, Avella, Pa. The cemetery where they are interred has only one partially legible stone. I have not posted anything to Find A Grave. I'm not sure I know how it's done.

Samuel Stoneking 1756-1820I am trying to find information on Samuel Stoneking Born 1756 Greene County, Pa.,& Died 1820 in Whitely, County, Pa., He was married to a Frakes. Nothing else know about wife. Where buried etc.Son of Johann Jakob Steinkonig, and Summer Eve Ali-quippa (reported to be a Seneca Indian).

He was the brother of Jacob Johan StonekingFind A Grave Memorial# 26498753

Any help would be appreciated.Thanks

Samuel is my great-great-great-great grandfather on my mother's side of family.

RE: Sarah BabbSarah Babb was not listed in the cemetery records, nor in the old Macomb Cemetery transcriptions complied by the Genealogical Society. I also checked the old Macomb Journal newspaper general abstracts that were compiled by Janet Pease, published by the McDonough County Genealogical Society several years ago, thinking there might have been mention of Sarah. There was no mention of her. A Samuel Babb (Co C, 7th Wisc. Inf.) was mentioned Oct 5, 1882, he attended a reunion of Civil War soldiers in Macomb. And there is a Samuel Babb buried at Stoneking Cemetery near Colchester. Don't know if it is the same one.